Tuesday, May 16, 2017

Seth Rich, the Democrat National Committee staffer murdered last summer on Capitol Hill, was speaking with WikiLeaks before he died, according to new reports.

Not satisfied with the pace or direction of the D.C. police investigation, the Rich family hired private detective Rod Wheeler to seek answers. That Rich was in touch with WikiLeaks is just one of the explosive claims Detective Wheeler has made.

The as-yet unsolved murder has been characterized as a botched robbery by D.C. police, even though evidence doesn’t actually point to a robbery. Rich was shot on July 10, 2016 after an apparent struggle, but his wallet, credit cards, cellphone and wristwatch were not taken.

Rich’s mother said, “There had been a struggle. His hands were bruised, his knees are bruised, his face is bruised, and yet he had two shots to his back, and yet they never took anything.”

She questions the claim that her son was working with WikiLeaks. “They took his life for literally no reason. They didn’t finish robbing him, they just took his life,” Rich said. “They hurt the community, and they hurt the long-term possibility of what he could have done.”

But Wheeler is standing by his story and he is getting backed up by the feds.

A “federal source” told Fox News Channel that the FBI generated a forensic report regarding Rich’s computer within 96 hours of his death. The report indicated Rich was in contact with WikiLeaks through the late Gavin MacFadyen, an American investigative reporter, documentary filmmaker, and WikiLeaks official who had been living in London at the time.

The Fox report continues:

“I have seen and read the emails between Seth Rich and WikiLeaks,” the federal investigator told Fox News, confirming the MacFadyen connection. He said the emails are in possession of the FBI, while the stalled case is in the hands of the Washington Police Department.

The revelation is consistent with the findings of Wheeler, whose private investigation firm was hired by a third party on behalf of Rich’s family to probe the case.

“My investigation up to this point shows there was some degree of email exchange between Seth Rich and WikiLeaks,” Wheeler said. “I do believe that the answers to who murdered Seth Rich sits on his computer on a shelf at the D.C. police or FBI headquarters.”

The federal investigator, who requested anonymity, said 44,053 emails and 17,761 attachments between Democratic National Committee leaders, spanning from January 2015 through late May 2016, were transferred from Rich to MacFadyen before May 21.

On July 22, just 12 days after Rich was killed, WikiLeaks published internal DNC emails that appeared to show top party officials conspired to stop Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont from becoming the party’s presidential nominee. That controversy resulted in Debbie Wasserman Schultz resigning as DNC chairperson.

Meanwhile, police have not revealed if the victim was able to identify his attackers or provide any information before he died in a hospital. A surveillance video shows Rich being followed by two men, but police have not made that video public.

After the shooting, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange claimed he had been working with Rich and implied he was murdered because he was the source of the hacked DNC emails. Assange has offered a $20,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the killers. D.C. police are offering a $25,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of Rich’s murderer. Republican lobbyist Jack Burkman is offered a separate $130,000 reward.

Assange’s claims and allegations of a DNC cover-up were widely dismissed as “conspiracy theories.” But Wheeler says FBI sources tell him that Rich was working with WikiLeaks, “absolutely, and that’s been confirmed.” Wheeler’s clear implication is that the DNC or some other political organization or individual could be involved.

“I want to find out who caused that man’s death, so we can put them behind bars. But if there’s somebody in politics, somebody in government – whether it’s the mayor’s office or anywhere else in this city that’s involved, you better believe they’re gonna be dragged in and questioned.”

Wheeler claims something is being deliberately hidden. Local police and the FBI “haven’t been cooperating at all. I believe that the answer to solving his death lies on [Rich’s laptop] computer, which I believe is either at the police department or either at the FBI. I have been told both… I have a source inside the police department that has looked at me straight in the eye and said, ‘Rod, we were told to stand down on this case and I can’t share any information with you.’” Wheeler says.

“I don’t think it comes from the Chief’s [of police] office, but I do believe there is a correlation between the mayor’s office and the DNC, and that’s the information that’s gonna come out tomorrow [i.e. Tuesday],” Wheeler said yesterday.